No Post / blank screen, what could it be?

[gregsteg]

I have built up a PC loosly following the Toms hardware $750 cheap computing challenge from February.

Here's a sum of the specs:

No floppy drive, just DVD RW.

LCD monitor.

MSI P45 Neo3 mobo
Intel core2 duo E8400 cpu w/ arctic cooling pro 7
Radeon HD 4850 1GB gpu
380W antec earthwatts psu

When I start it up all the fans start up, the drives make some noise, both HD and DVD, LEDs glow. But there is no signal to the monitor, I cannot get to the BIOS setting fun that I anticipate. There is also NO "beep" from the case (NSK4480), I assume it has a speaker b/c I connected a speaker plug.

What should I try?

Is it the video card?
Could it be not enough power from the psu?
Do I need to install drivers somehow without seeing what is going on or without a floppy drive?
Is my LG brand LCD in need of drivers to cooperate?

My only other PC is a laptop, so I can't swap parts around very easily to troubleshoot. Or can I? Can I send the video signal to the laptop somehow?

 

[sassan]

Maybe you connected the speaker bit wrong, try again without the video card see if you would hear beeps.

If you hear the beeps try this time with video card in but don't connect hard drive/dvd drive. See if that will turn it on.

Does the video cards fan spin?

You can also turn off the monitor and turn it on after the computer has been turned on. If there are two ports on your video card try the other port.

If none of this works out try to see if there is another video card that you can put in there. If that works then your video card is dead and create an RMA

 

[jsc]

Checklist:
http://www.tomshardware.com/forum/261145-31-build-post-checklist

Then try:
Pull everything except the CPU and HSF. Boot. You should hear a series of long single beeps indicating memory problems. Silence here indicates, in probable order, a bad PSU, motherboard, or, rarely, the CPU - or a bad installation where something is shorting and shutting down the PSU.

To eliminate the possiblility of a bad installation where something is shorting and shutting down the PSU, you will need to pull the motherboard out of the case and reassemble the components on an insulated surface. This is called "breadboarding" - from the 1920's homebrew radio days. I always breadboard a new or recycled build. It lets me test components before I go through the trouble of installing them in a case.

If you get the long beeps, add a stick of RAM. Boot. The beep pattern should change to one long and two or three short beeps. Silence indicates that the RAM is shorting out the PSU (very rare). Long single beeps indicates that the BIOS does not recognize the presence of the RAM.

If you get the one long and two or three short beeps, test the rest of the RAM. If good, install the video card and any needed power cables and plug in the monitor. If the video card is good, the system should successfully POST (one short beep, usually) and you will see the boot screen and messages.

Note - an inadequate PSU will cause a failure here or any step later.
Note - you do not need drives or a keyboard to successfully POST (generally a single short beep).

If you successfully POST, start plugging in the rest of the components, one at a time.

 

[gregsteg]

Thanks for the help. It seems to be when I add the RAM that I lose the beeps. Any idea? I'm about to return the power supply to the shop.

 

[shortstuff_mt]

Thanks for the help. It seems to be when I add the RAM that I lose the beeps. Any idea? I'm about to return the power supply to the shop.

It looks like you have a dead stick of RAM. Did you go through the checklist posted above? You need to try each stick of RAM by itself to try to find the faulty stick. It's very rare, but it could also be a dead RAM slot on the motherboard. If trying each stick of RAM by itself doesn't work, try moving the RAM to different slots. The checklist posted above goes through this in more detail as well as quite a few more troubleshooting ideas. I would try to determine the problem before you randomly start sending parts in for RMA.